Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Halfway through the schedule, the SEC season -- as well as the BCS horse race -- has been parboiled down to a handful of games.

In the SEC, the biggie, of course, is LSU vs. Alabama on Nov. 5. That will settle the SEC West. But both teams will have significant challenges remaining on their way to the National Championship game: LSU will face Arkansas at season's end; Alabama must go on the road to Auburn, where the stadium will be chained down to keep it from blasting off its moorings.

In the SEC East, Steve Spurrier this week threw a couple more logs on the fire of South Carolina's year. If he can control the flames, he may salvage the Gamecocks' pre-season ticket to Atlanta. But the 'Cocks still must beat Arkansas, which at this point would be an upset. Otherwise, South Carolina must pull for a Georgia loss against Florida or Auburn.

The end of the Stephen Garcia Era was sad but predictable. He failed his drug test Oct. 4. The announcement of his final departure came after Spurrier's banning Tuesday of columnist Ron Morris from his press conferences. Why Garcia was allowed to play his senior season will be debated to the end of the Cosmos. Suffice to say, his inability to stick within the university's behavior guidelines doesn't shine well on Spurrier, who's never been known as a strict disciplinarian.

The TOBC's brouhaha with Morris will blow over in a matter of days. But it's not a stretch to say that Spurrier could be grieving the loss of Garcia, or be upset at his inability to reach him, and he may have been directing some of that emotion at the writer.

Read the offending column from last March. The headline is far more accusatory than anything Morris wrote. But Spurrier has made Morris the bad guy, when the Gamecocks' so-far disappointing season is the real story, and the very one that Spurrier may not want to address.

Maybe this is what Carolina needs to finally gel. Nobody could look at the assemblage of talent and experience in Columbia this year and say the Gamecocks have appeared focused and well-coached. Now Spurrier can play the "us against the world" card. Maybe it will work. Up to now, little else has, and that includes coaching.

**Outside the conference, the battle of Oklahoma will determine the SEC's likely opponent in January. These championship games haven't been close. This one should be. The Sooners appear to be the best-balanced team since Pete Carroll's early USC squads. But Oklahoma State looms.

**Speaking of the Nov. 5, just when do we think college football fans will get to tune into LSU-Alabama? The ACC broadcasts, now starting at 12:30 p.m., are back to their poaching ways. There's nothing more depressing to a Charlotte-area SEC fan than turning on WBTV at 3:15, and finding 11 minutes on the clock and the officials going to a replay to settle a fumble call in a pivotal Boston College vs. Virginia game. By the time the game ends, Verne and Gary will have burned through most of the first quarter. That's an outrage most weeks. But if it happens to the LSU/Alabama game, it will be a crime. (More on this to come.)

5
comments:

Anonymous
said...

Vandy very well could upset UGA Saturday, and turn the heat up further on CMR. I like the Commode Doors new coach.

I don't know what to make of my Gators. Whatever freshman plays at QB on the plains needs to stay in the game, Charlie needs to ditch the Rainey/Burton crap at QB, that reeks of the Dumbazzio garbage last year.

To add, this crap of WBTV keeping the A-She-She game on overlapping reeks. CBS could be trendy and move their kickoffs back to 4, if it is a problem in other areas of the country.

CBS has an SEC doubleheader on November 12, game at noon and 3:30. Will BT preempt the early game? You have Bama at MSU, AU at UGA, and UF at USC that day. Any of which trump whatever the A-She-She can put out.

SC's disappointing season? Nothing has worked? Last I looked, they were 5-1, the 1 being a 3-point loss to Auburn. How is this so bad? Oh, that's right, Auburn is such a trashy football team they should be disbanded, Jordan-Hare burned to the ground, and SC losing to Johnson C Smith would be less disgraceful. Sorry, I forgot...

It's bad enough that the ACC has pushed it's game of the week back to 12:30. But is it just me, or is every bloody ACC game 5 hours long? The Wake-FSU game was insufferable. The Va Tech-Miami game was insufferable until the last 4 minutes. No college game gets done in 3 hours; I don't know why these idiot TV heads haven't figured that out and stopped stacking TV games in 3-hour windows. But the ACC appears to be worse than every other conference about taking all damn day to play a game.

It makes no sense that Spurrier suddenly decided to stop talking to Morris in Oct for something he wrote in March. That's irrational behavior even for Stevie boy. Obviously there's something more bothering him than an article written 7 months ago.

Based on Sunday's AP national voting, what we know in week 7 is this: LSU and Bama are still in the Elite SEC category by themselves. In the Good category, the next level down, we still have Ark, USC and Auburn, but the Gators, due to their 41-11 shellacking by LSU, have dropped into the Mediocre category with UGA. Finally, the Vols have fallen from Mediocre into the Discard Pile at the bottom of the heap along with Vandy, KY, Ole Miss and Miss St, none of whom received any AP votes this week.

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Michael Gordon

Allegiance: Alabama
Favorite player: Johnny Musso . . . The Italian Stallion -- Sylvester Stallone is a plagiarist -- played more often in torn garb than the Incredible Hulk. (Musso was also a better blocker.)

Possibly disturbing fact: Trash-talked the infant son of Auburn friends after the kid projectile vomited in my living room the instant after an Alabama touchdown.

Possibly disturbing fact: Have an original 45 of “The Ballad of Archie Who” on the wall at home, right by the “Drink Barq’s – It’s Good” sign.

Courtney St. Onge

Allegiance: Auburn

Favorite player: Bo

Possibly disturbing fact: Had picture taken with Terry Bowden at a meet-and-greet following his undefeated season. Just for fun, I mailed it to him later, autographed by my uncle and me. Who knew he would actually need the "Good luck in your endeavors!"?

Other fact: It was my infant son that Michael Gordon trash-talked. Just so you know.

Possibly disturbing fact: Once thought it would be funny to teach my toddler to say "Roll Tide!" We practiced covertly. Then, one day, my wife the Auburn grad walked in. "Roll Tide!" my son said, perfectly. Turned out to be more funny in the conceptual stage.

Tommy Tomlinson

Allegiance: Georgia

Favorite player: The immortal Herschel Walker, who, by the way, is immortal

Possibly disturbing fact: Slept in car one Georgia-Florida weekend after last-minute decision to go to game. Sneaked into Jacksonville University dorms for showers. Thanks for lax security, Jax!